Rep. Duffy Daugherty for Coos 1

October 22, 2012

Rep. Duffy Daugherty, a Families First Pledge signer and property rights advocate who voted with Cornerstone 89 percent of the time, is running for one of two seats in Coos 1. Rep. Daugherty’s district includes the communities of Atkinson, Gilmanton Academy Grant, Cambridge, Clarksville, Colebrook, Columbia, Dix’s Grant, Dixville, Errol, Erving’s Location, Millsfield, Odell, Pittsburg, Second College Gt., Stewartstown, Stratford and Wentworth’s Location.

Rep. Daugherty, a U.S. Air Force veteran and defense acquisition management consultant by trade, served on the House Ways and Means during his freshman term. As a member of the Ways and Means committee, Rep. Daughertyserved a critical role in accurately predicting the state’s revenue within 0.0003 percent of actual state receipts for fiscal year 2012. His committee was responsible for a resolution (HR 11) that not only accurately predicted state revenues, it also required legislators working on the budget to spend no more than the revenue prediction. It was this resolution that led to the Legislature’s 11 percent state budget reduction (HB 1 & HB 2) that also reduced taxes and fees without using any budgeting gimmicks or passing costs down to cities and towns.

Rep. Daugherty was the prime sponsor of HB 1207, which clarified timber ownership rights for purposes of taxation, and PET 9, a petition in front of the newly created Redress of Grievances Committee for a gentleman who shared his contention that the N.H. Department of Revenue’s “view tax” is arbitrary and capricious and the cause of subjective property tax assessments. While the committee said the grievance was unfounded, Rep. Daugherty’s effort still advanced as an amendment to HB 1393 to essentially repeal the view tax and eliminate routine interior inspections of private property. Since the amendment didn’t pass, upon re-election, Rep. Daugherty is expected further the cause of property rights in partnership with Rep. Kenneth Weyler, chairman of the House Finance Committee.

Besides these efforts, Rep. Daugherty was a co-sponsor of HB 648, which strengthened the state’s eminent domain law so private companies cannot take private land for their private projects without the owner’s willingness to sell.

A native of West Virginia who worked in Virginia for much of his career, Rep. Daugherty retired in 2005 to Colebrook, N.H., the town where his wife Sharon was from. Since then, he founded and chaired a political action committee in 2007 to address tax and budget issues and he was active in the Tea Party during the 2010 election.